V.
The Vienna Insurrection

NOVEMBER 12, 1851.

ON the 24th of February, 1848, Louis Philippe was driven out of
Paris, and the French Republic was proclaimed. On the 13th of March following,
the people of Vienna broke the power of Prince Metternich, and made him flee
shamefully out of the country. On the 18th of March the people of Berlin rose
in arms, and, after an obstinate struggle of eighteen hours, had the
satisfaction of seeing the King surrender himself into their hands.
Simultaneous outbreaks of a more or less violent nature, but all with the same
success, occurred in the capitals of the smaller States of Germany. The German
people, if they had not accomplished their first revolution, were at least
fairly launched into the revolutionary career.

As to the incidents of these various insurrections, we cannot enter here
into the details of them: what we have to explain is their character, and the
position which the different classes of the population took up with regard to
them.

The Revolution of Vienna may be said to have been made by an almost
unanimous population. The bourgeoisie (with the exception of the bankers and
stock-jobbers), the petty trading class, the working people, one and all arose
at once against a Government detested by all, a Government so universally
hated, that the small minority of nobles and money lords which had supported it
made itself invisible on the very first attack. The middle classes had been
kept in such a degree of political ignorance by Metternich that to them the
news from Paris about the reign of Anarchy, Socialism, and terror, and about
impending struggles between the class of capitalists and the class of laborers,
proved quite unintelligible. They, in their political innocence, either could
attach no meaning to these news, or they believed them to be fiendish
inventions of Metternich, to frighten them into obedience. They, besides, had
never seen working men acting as a class, or stand up for their own distinct
class interests. They had, from their past experience, no idea of the
possibility of any differences springing up between classes that now were so
heartily united in upsetting a Government hated by all. They saw the working
people agree with themselves upon all points: a Constitution, Trial by Jury,
Liberty of the Press, etc. Thus they were, in March, 1848, at least, heart and
soul with the movement, and the movement, on the other hand, at once
constituted them the (at least in theory) predominant class of the State.

But it is the fate of all revolutions that this union of different classes,
which in some degree is always the necessary condition of any revolution,
cannot subsist long. No sooner is the victory gained against the common enemy
than the victors become divided among themselves into different camps, and turn
their weapons against each other. It is this rapid and passionate development
of class antagonism which, in old and complicated social organisms, makes a
revolution such a powerful agent of social and political progress; it is this
incessantly quick upshooting of new parties succeeding each other in power,
which, during those violent commotions, makes a nation pass in five years over
more ground than it would have done in a century under ordinary
circumstances.

The Revolution in Vienna made the middle class the theoretically predominant
class; that is to say, the concessions wrung from the Government were such as,
once carried out practically and adhered to for a time, would inevitably have
secured the supremacy of the middle class. But practically the supremacy of
that class was far from being established. It is true that by the establishment
of a national guard, which gave arms to the bourgeoisie and petty tradesmen,
that class obtained both force and importance; it is true that by the
installation of a "Committee of Safety," a sort of revolutionary, irresponsible
Government in which the bourgeoisie predominated, it was placed at the head of
power. But, at the same time, the workings classes were partially armed too;
they and the students had borne the brunt of the fight, as far as fight there
had been; and the students, about 4,000 strong, well-armed, and far better
disciplined than the national guard, formed the nucleus, the real strength of
the revolutionary force, and were no ways willing to act as a mere instrument
in the hands of the Committee of Safety. Though they recognized it, and were
even its most enthusiastic supporters, they yet formed a sort of independent
and rather turbulent body, deliberating for themselves in the "Aula," keeping
an intermediate position between the bourgeoisie and the working-classes,
preventing by constant agitation things from settling down to the old everyday
tranquillity, and very often forcing their resolutions upon the Committee of
Safety. The working men, on the other hand, almost entirely thrown out of
employment, had to be employed in public works at the expense of the State, and
the money for this purpose had, of course, to be taken out of the purse of the
taxpayers or out of the chest of the city of Vienna. All this could not but
become very unpleasant to the tradesmen of Vienna. The manufactures of the
city, calculated for the consumption of the rich and aristocratic courts of a
large country, were as a matter of course entirely stopped by the Revolution,
by the flight of the aristocracy and Court; trade was at a standstill, and the
continuous agitation and excitement kept up by the students and working people
was certainly not the means to "restore confidence," as the phrase went. Thus a
certain coolness very soon sprung up between the middle classes on the one side
and the turbulent students and working people on the other; and if for a long
time this coolness was not ripened into open hostility, it was because the
Ministry, and particularly the Court, in their impatience to restore the old
order of things, constantly justified the suspicions and the turbulent activity
of the more revolutionary parties, and constantly made arise, even before the
eyes of the middle classes, the spectre of old Metternichian despotism. Thus on
the 15th of May, and again on the 16th, there were fresh risings of all classes
in Vienna, on account of the Government having tried to attack, or to undermine
some of the newly-conquered liberties, and on each occasion the alliance
between the national guard or armed middle class, the students, and the
workingmen, was again cemented for a time.

As to the other classes of the population, the aristocracy and the money
lords had disappeared, and the peasantry were busily engaged everywhere in
removing, down to the very last vestiges of feudalism. Thanks to the war in
Italy, and the occupation which Vienna and Hungary gave to the Court, they were
left at full liberty, and succeeded in their work of liberation in Austria,
better than in any other part of Germany. The Austrian Diet had very shortly
after only to confirm the steps already practically taken by the peasantry, and
whatever else the Government of Prince Schwartzenberg may be enabled to
restore, it will never have the power of re-establishing the feudal servitude
of the peasantry. And if Austria at the present moment is again comparatively
tranquil, and even strong, it is principally because the great majority of the
people, the peasants, have been real gainers by the Revolution, and because
whatever else has been attacked by the restored Government, those palpable,
substantial advantages, conquered by the peasantry, are as yet untouched.